All my friends call me Martha

November 25, 2008

Holiday packing, a Farewell Party, Netball Grand Final and more Christmas gift ideas...

Be warned LONG catch up blog ahead!!!!!

Well it has been a very busy few days...and only a few days left of school! It has been VERY sticky and hot up here the past few days, perfect weather for the girls to try on their winter clothes for our long awaited holiday in a few weeks - NOT! It is very hard to pack for somewhere super cold when its 38' in your bedroom, the jeans, jumpers etc have a habit of sticking to you - yuk!

Anyway we persevered and our bags are packed ready - Shanghai here we come! Now we just have to pack every thing else and get it back to Sydney!!!??!

Taylor had her Farewell Party with her class last Sunday, nice bunch of kids and they were happy with just playing in the pool (perfect weather for it)..its Lilly's turn this Friday the last day of school!

The girls and I made these for some 'special friends' that they will miss when we move..we just went to Office Works and bought covered notebooks in bulk then used scraps and embelishments to cover them finishing with a groovy pencil all wrapped up in an organza bag - perfect!

Netball grand final time and Taylor's team played their arch rivals and won - its was pretty close and there were moments when we thought they wouldn't make it - you would have thought we were playing for 'sheep stations' rather than it being an Under 12 netball final - its definitely stressful being a spectator! We had the team and parents back to our place for a sausage sizzle and a swim to celebrate. The girls walked away with a certificate and trophy as the seson winners and the biggest smiles you've ever seen!!

I made the yummiest chocolate cake ever for them to celebrate win or loose.... not sure where I found the recipe, one of those that you tear out of a magazine and attempt to cook months later (does anyone else do that or just me??) It was super easy and quick and very moist...forgot to take a photo last night and this is all that was left this morning, the girls are polishing the rest off as I type...

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested:

EASY CHOCOLATE CAKE

125g butter, roughly chopped

1/2 cup golden syrup

2 cups plain flour

1/3 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180'C, grease and line a 20cm square cake pan with baking paper. Melt butter in a saucepan, remove from heat and add golden syrup, combine well then set aside to cool.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb. over butter mixture. Combine sugar, milk, eggs and vanilla in a large jug. Add to mixture and using a small whisk, gentky whisk until all ingredients are well combined. Pour mixture into prepared baking pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until cake is cooked when tested. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Ice with cholcoate icing or leave plain and sprinkle with icing sugar just before serving.

ENJOY XX

I have more pics from Kim's JINGLE BELLS workshop (www.kimarcher.com.au) to share with you but might make you wait until tomorrow...until then, bye for now xx

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